Following the development of a validated preoperative educational Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) for parents, a randomized clinical trial, with a pre-test-post-test control group, was conducted on 123 French or English speaking parent-child dyads whose child was aged from 3 to 10 years and underwent an ear-nose-throat (ENT) or dental same day surgery at a Canadian pediatric hospital. The parents in the control group received the standard preoperative preparation (verbal and written information about hospital procedures and the hospital's surgical virtual tour). The parents in the experimental group viewed the DVD and received the standard preoperative preparation. Parents and children were videotaped in the recovery room; parental participation and children's distress were measured using observational scales. A validated multiple choice questionnaire was used to measure parents' knowledge acquisition, whereas a visual analogue scale allowed parents to report their anxiety level prior to, during and after their stay in the recovery room. A chart review was conducted to collect data on children's postoperative pain, analgesic requirements and length of recovery. In order to assess the effect of the DVD on parents and their child, T-test, chi-square analyses and repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted among 105 dyads.